Goin’ Down the Gardiner Expressway

<b>Sketch based on suggestions by Etobicoke Reeve Clive Sinclair on bringing the Queen Elizabeth Way into Toronto. The <i>Toronto Star</i>, September 14, 1949.</b><br><br />
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The combination of the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Way in 1939 and suburban growth had led to frequent traffic jams caused by commuters entering the city along the old Humber Bridge. Visions of a waterfront expressway were included in the City’s 1943 master plan, but it took time for plans to firm up. In 1949, Etobicoke Reeve Clive Sinclair suggested the plan shown here, which he felt would reduce the congestion he feared would emerge when the Ontario Food Terminal opened on the Queensway. The key to Sinclair’s plan was cutting the link between the Queensway and the approach to the QEW. “We’ve already had too many pedestrians killed or injured trying to dodge express traffic at this corner,” he told the <i>Star</i>.<br />

<b>Photo of Frederick G. Gardiner, taken during a photoshoot for <i>Time</i> magazine, April 5, 1956. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1653, Series 975, File 2262, Item 32745-3.</b><br><br />
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Enter Frederick Gardiner, chairman of the newly formed regional government of Metropolitan Toronto. As a <i>Toronto Life</i> article noted 40 years later, “Gardiner liked big solutions to big problems, and he brought an entrepreneurial flair to city government. He loved building things, loved to get plans pushed through and get the shovels in the ground.” As Gardiner once observed, “a municipality is no different from an industrial undertaking.” Fixing the bottlenecks at the bottom of the city was right up his alley.<br />

<b>Source: the <i>Toronto Star</i>, July 8, 1953.</b><br />
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One of Metro’s first acts was to announce in July 1953 that its executive committee had unanimously approved a motion by Gardiner to meet with regional planning authorities to discuss what was soon dubbed the Lakeshore Expressway. The highway would run from the Humber Bridge to Woodbine Avenue. Two sections would be elevated (Humber Bridge to Bathurst Street, and Cherry Street to Woodbine), with surface streets handling the traffic flow through downtown. Toronto Mayor <a href="http://torontoist.com/2012/02/lampy-versus-big-daddy/" target="_blank">Allan Lamport</a> urged caution with construction—“We can’t go too fast on this. It is absolutely essential.” One of the main questions involved on which side of the CNE grounds the expressway should be built: Should it be go up on the north side, along the rail corridor, or on the south via fill into the lake?

<b>Source: the <i>Toronto Star</i>, January 2, 1954.</b><br><br />
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As 1954 dawned, Gardiner and Scarborough Reeve Oliver Crockford supported a plan to extend the Lakeshore Expressway east to meet Highway 401 at Highland Creek. The route would have cut through east-end neighbourhoods before proceeding along the bottom of the Scarborough Bluffs. Gardiner viewed what was later known as the <a href="http://www.gettorontomoving.ca/Scarborough_Expressway.php">Scarborough Expressway</a> as a solution to potential bottlenecks at Woodbine Avenue and Kingston Road, while Crockford felt it would help halt the erosion of the bluffs. The Scarborough Expressway remained in regional plans for the next two decades before being scrapped. <br />

<b>Source: the <i>Toronto Star</i>, May 3, 1954.</b><br><br />
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On May 5, 1954, Metro Council received plans for the Lakeshore Expressway. The $49.8-million project would be elevated above Fleet Street (now Lake Shore Boulevard) from Bathurst Street to Cherry Street. To alleviate congestion in the core, a two-level parking facility with direct ramps would be built under the expressway between Yonge Street and Parliament Street. The route would run south of the CNE, and it was predicted the fairgrounds would receive 25 additional acres from the fill required for the expressway. A <i>Globe and Mail</i> editorial predicted that the new road “ought to eliminate the worst of the waterfront traffic problems, at least for some years to come.”<br />

<b>Construction of Queen Street West extension, 1955. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 220, Series 65, File 137, Item 13.</b><br><br />
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Two other road projects were rolled into the Lakeshore Expressway. In the west end, Queen Street was extended westward to meet up with the Queensway via a new bridge across the Humber. This stretch, which opened in December 1956, was eventually treated as an eastern extension of the Queensway. <br />

<b>Construction of Woodbine Avenue extension, circa 1955. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 220, Series 65, File 115, Item 15.</b><br><br />
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In the east end, Keating Street (now Lake Shore Boulevard) was extended from Leslie Street to Woodbine Avenue to provide an eventual end to the expressway. Opened in December 1955, residents soon dubbed the tight curve leading Keating onto Woodbine a “death trap.” Eastbound drivers going 55 miles an hour often found themselves driving into the southbound lanes of Woodbine or climbing onto the northbound sidewalk. Local councillors received complaints from residents ranging from smashed fire hydrants to a car hitting one home’s veranda.<br />

<b>Source: the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, May 19, 1954.</b><br><br />
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One east-end vision which never materialized was a plan to build a ramp on the west side of Woodbine Racetrack, which would have connected the Lakeshore Expressway to Kingston Road and Dundas Street East (which was <a href="http://spacing.ca/toronto/2011/10/15/the-many-streets-of-dundas/">still being stitched together</a> from local side streets).<br />

<b>Empress Crescent , looking east from Dowling Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard West, 1956. Photo by James Salmon. Toronto Public Library, R-912.</b><br><br />
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Construction on the Lakeshore Expressway began on April Fools' Day 1955, and concentrated on the stretch between the Humber and Jameson Avenue. Around 150 homes were demolished to make way for the expressway and its related projects, mostly in south Parkdale around Dowling Avenue and Jameson Avenue. Streets like Empress Crescent vanished from city maps. When the <i>Globe and Mail</i> printed pictures of the rubble left behind by demolitions in 1957, it described the scene as “ruins reminiscent of a Second World War bombing raid.”<br />

<b>Gardiner Expressway, looking west from east of the foot of Roncesvalles Avenue, during construction, showing Lakeshore Road bridge over CNR tracks, south of King Street and Sunnyside Railway Station, July 21, 1957. Photo by James Salmon. Toronto Public Library, R-934.</b><br><br />
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Construction also brought an end to <a href="http://torontoist.com/2008/06/historicist_the_5/">Sunnyside Amusement Park</a>, which would be revamped as a city beach. The nearby bridge connecting Lakeshore Road (now Lake Shore Boulevard) with the King/Queen/Roncesvalles intersection also met its demise. The <a href="http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/CPR_Toronto/stns/sunnyside.htm">Sunnyside train station</a> survived the building of the expressway, but ceased passenger service in 1967.<br />

<b>Parkside Drive, looking north from Lakeshore Road, July 21, 1957. Photo by James Salmon. Toronto Public Library, R-1714.</b><br><br />
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A new bridge waiting for the Lakeshore Expressway to cross it.<br />

<b>Cartoon, the <i>Toronto Star</i>, July 2, 1957.</b><br><br />
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As construction proceeded, there were concerns that the expressway might permanently stop at Jameson Avenue. Metro was having problems convincing higher levels of government to help fund the proposed subway line along Bloor Street. Gardiner believed Metro couldn’t raise enough money to fund its expressway and public transit plans. “You simply cannot provide sufficient highways and parking space to accommodate every person who desires to drive his motor vehicle downtown and back each day,” Gardiner noted in January 1956.”Additional rapid transit is the only answer. It is a snare and a delusion to keep on spending millions of dollars on highways because the province will subsidize them 50 per cent. We know that beyond a certain stage $1 spent on rapid transit is worth $5 spent on more arterial highways and parking facilities.” Problem was that Metro council would rather spend money on roads than transit. Eventually, outside funding for the subway came through.<br />

<b>Copy of a cartoon published in the <i>Telegram</i>, August 29, 1957. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1567. Series 648, File 26, Item 1.</b><br><br />
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On July 29, 1957, based on a suggestion from Weston Mayor Harry Clark, the Metro roads committee renamed the Lakeshore Expressway the Frederick G, Gardiner Expressway. Clark felt it was a gesture of appreciation for Gardiner's leading Metro through its formative years. The tribute pleased Gardiner.<br />

<b>Aerial view of the Gardiner Expressway, August 14, 1958. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 220, Series 65, File 37, Item 1.</b><br><br />
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At 3 p.m. on August 8, 1958, dignitaries including Gardiner, Ontario Premier Leslie Frost, and Toronto Mayor Nathan Phillips officially opened the first section of the expressway, which ran from the Humber to Jameson Avenue. The road experienced its first traffic jam that day, a mile-long backup which would seem mild compared to present-day gridlock. As the <i>Globe and Mail</i>’s Ron Haggart put it, “the traffic jam was the best tribute of the day to the need for the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway.”<br />

<b>East end of Gardiner Expressway at Jameson Avenue/Dunn Street, 1959. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 220, Series 65, File 58, Item 3.</b><br> <br />
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In an essay in the commemorative book published for Toronto’s 125th anniversary, <i>Toronto ’59</i>, Nathaniel A. Benson placed the Gardiner in the context of the evolution of Toronto’s shoreline. “The lakeshore once was open, save for a staunch little lighthouse and an old-fashioned yacht club. Today there rise the towers of a great Molson brewing plant, the imposing Tip Top Tailors Building, the <a href="http://torontoist.com/2013/08/presidents-choice-memories-of-bathurst-and-lake-shore/">head offices of Loblaws</a>, and the multi-million dollar home of the Toronto Baseball Maple Leafs. The garish lights of the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway cut spectacularly along the railway tracks, with its day-and-night ceaseless whizz of traffic shaking the peace of the ancient graves in the old military cemetery on Strachan Avenue, grazing the heroic battlements of old Fort York.”<br />

<b>Plans considered for Fort York. The <i>Toronto Star</i>, October 4, 1958.</b><br />
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After further study, the route of the Gardiner was switched to the north side of the CNE. This placed Fort York in the path of the expressway, and led to protests throughout 1958 from groups ranging from historical societies to the Toronto Women’s Progressive Conservative Association. The tide of voices against proposals to move the fort led to one of Gardiner’s few losses when it came to the expressway. <a href="http://torontoist.com/2013/04/historicist-defending-fort-york-from-ourselves/">Historicist covered the full story of how Fort York was saved</a>.<br />

<b>Construction of the new Dufferin Gate, 1959. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 220, Series 65, File 58, Item 8.</b><br> <br />
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While Fort York was saved, the CNE’s Dufferin Gate wasn’t. Fairgoers passed under the <a href="http://www.blogto.com/city/2012/01/a_brief_history_of_the_dufferin_gate_at_the_cne_grounds/">old landmark for the last time in 1957</a>. Two years later, construction was well underway for its replacement. <br />

<b>Construction of the elevated section of the Gardiner Expressway, 1959. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 220, Series 65, File 37, Item 19.</b><br><br />
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By the end of the 1950s, some politicians and local media grew impatient with the slow pace of construction, which wasn’t scheduled to end until 1965. “At such a pace,” noted a December 1959 <i>Globe and Mail</i> editorial, “Metro might not bother at all. The growth of traffic will far outstrip the growth of the road, and at the end of 10 years congestion will be worse than when the work was started.” Part of the blame was placed on Frederick Gardiner’s refusal to borrow more than $100 million a year to fund all Metro capital works projects.<br />

<b>Source: the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, November 3, 1960.</b><br><br />
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By the end of 1960, designs were close to being finalized for the expressway’s connection with the Don Valley Parkway. We hope Frederick Gardiner and Nathan Phillips didn’t collide into each other. This cartoon also shows the streets (Fleet and Keating) that soon became Lake Shore Boulevard East.<br />

<b>Eastbound Spadina Avenue ramp. Source: the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, July 31, 1962.</b><br><br />
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The Jameson-Spadina section opened during morning rush hour on August 1, 1962. Despite the potential bottleneck at the eastbound Spadina ramp, one traveller noted that his evening rush-hour journey on opening day from the Humber to Spadina and Front took 10 minutes.<br />

<b>Jarvis Street, east side, looking northeast from Lake Shore Boulevard East, showing Gardiner Expressway under construction, 1963. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 5603.</b><br><br />
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Note the billboards in the far background. The distraction provided by advertising was a growing safety concern, which led Metro’s transportation committee to recommend that no ads be placed within 150 feet of the Gardiner or the Don Valley Parkway.<br />

<b>Source: the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, November 6, 1964.</b><br><br />
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Besides the link between the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway, November 6, 1964, also saw the opening of most of the Eastern Avenue flyover.<br />

<b>Construction of the Eastern Avenue flyover/Richmond Street exit from the Don Valley Parkway, north of the Gardiner Expressway, 1964. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 6467.</b><br><br />
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What proved to be <a hrf="http://jbwarehouse.blogspot.ca/2013/04/past-pieces-of-toronto-gardiner.html">the final stretch of the Gardiner</a>, running from the Don Valley Parkway to Leslie Street, was opened on July 15, 1966. Plans to extend the expressway further east and build the Scarborough Expressway were scrapped by Metro Council in 1974. Poor maintenance of this section led to crumbling, which resulted in recommendations to tear it down during the 1990s. Opposition to the demolition came from two groups: film studios, which were worried about dust and noise that was carefully factored into the final demo process; and local residents, who worried about traffic spilling onto side streets and into the Beaches, even though drivers would be able to follow essentially the same route into the lakeside community. City councillor Tom Jakobek resisted demolition, devising several compromise plans that would have preserved part of the stump. “Cars are an important necessity in this society,” Jakobek noted in 1999. “Why would anyone want to eliminate road capacity anywhere, when it’s located in the middle of an industrial area and people use it?” But Jakobek proved to be in the minority: most attendees at public deputations wanted it gone, and council approved its demolition in 1999. Only a few pillars remain, while land opened up for a bike path, big box shopping, and the TTC’s Leslie Barns facility.<br />

<b>View of Gardiner Expressway looking west from the CN Tower, between 1976 and 1981. Photo by Ellis Wiley. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 124, File 13, Item 2.</b><br><br />
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The first cracks in the Gardiner were observed in 1962. Metro roads commissioner George Grant blamed heavy traffic, while the province claimed a thinner-than-normal coat of asphalt had been used while building the expressway’s first section. A year after Frederick Gardiner died in 1983, an ongoing repair program began to attack the effects of expansion and contraction on the concrete. <br />

<b>View of Gardiner Expressway looking east from the CN Tower, between 1976 and 1981. Photo by Ellis Wiley. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 124, File 13, Item 13.</b><br><br />
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Chaired by former mayor David Crombie, the Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront’s 1992 report provided a good summary of the issues many Torontonians have with the Gardiner Expressway: “The combination of the elevated portion of the Gardiner Expressway, Lake Shore Boulevard underneath it, and the rail corridor beside it has created a physical, visual, and psychological barrier to the Central Waterfront. It is a constant source of noise and air pollution, a hostile, dirty environment for thousands of people who walk under it daily, and a barrier to thousands of others who risk life and limb to get across or around it. The Gardiner/Lake Shore is not only a road; it is a structure. As it processes traffic, it stunts land use; meant to move us along, it limits our opportunities.” That commission recommended a mixed approach to the Gardiner, which would have involved the retaining of some elevated sections, and the moving or burial of others. <br />

<b>Frederick G. Gardiner, 1961. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 220, Series 65, File 175, Item 17.</b><br><br />
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For years, the arguments over the Gardiner have boiled down to whether it should be maintained in some form to prevent excessive disruption to motorists; torn down, with traffic redirected; or rehabilitated creatively. The report issued this week joins a long line of documents, including studies overseen by the likes of David Crombie and <a href="http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=56c94f058377f310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=cf777c6a9967f310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD">Robert Fung</a>. As <i>Toronto Life</i> concluded in 1993, “No matter what Toronto decides to do, it will be a prodigiously difficult project, politically and financially. It sounds as if it might require the skills of a politician as powerful and shrewd as, say, Fred Gardiner.”<br />

Frederick G. Gardiner was proud of the expressway named in his honour. “You know,” he noted in a 1964 interview, “I used to lie in bed dreaming in Technicolor, thinking it was too big. Now I know it isn’t. Maybe in 20 years time, they’ll be cursing me for making it too small. But I won’t be around to worry then. Right now, I’ve come up smelling of Chanel No. 5.”

When Gardiner died in 1983, few liked the scent of his expressway. They cursed him for pushing a crumbling roadway increasingly seen as a barrier between downtown and the waterfront. This week’s report favouring demolition of the eastern section of the Gardiner Expressway joins a long line of studies recommending a teardown.

But there was a time when regional officials believed the Gardiner Expressway would solve bottlenecks plaguing a growing city in the early 1950s. Had it been built to its full extent via the Scarborough Expressway, drivers might have enjoyed views of Humber Bay, the downtown skyline, and the Scarborough Bluffs.

Step into our gallery to observe the development of the Gardiner Expressway.

Additional material from Regeneration: Toronto’s Waterfront and the Sustainable City (Toronto: Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront, 1992); Toronto ’59 (Toronto: City of Toronto, 1959); the May 4, 1954. May 17, 1956, March 23, 1957, July 30, 1957, August 8, 1958, August 11, 1958, December 3, 1959, February 6, 1962, and May 12, 1999 editions of the Globe and Mail; the September 14, 1949, July 8, 1953, January 2, 1954, May 3, 1954, July 2, 1957. May 18, 1999, and May 6, 2000 editions of the Toronto Star; and the September 1993 edition of Toronto Life.

CORRECTION: February 9, 2014, 10:11 AM An image originally identified as the construction of the Gardiner Expressway over the Don River in 1964 actually depicts the building of the nearby Eastern Avenue flyover and the Richmond Street ramp from the Don Valley Parkway that same year. We regret the error.